Day 2 with Grace and the Finding Spot

Today was our first day of rest since we got here. Can I get a hallelujah!! There were no appointments. No sightseeing tours. No flights to catch. It. Was. So. Nice.

Grace slept through the night. Her paperwork we received said that she did, but seeing as it was our first night with her we weren't sure what to expect. She is a noisy little breather at times and has an occasional cough that sounds like something warranting a trip to the ER but that is *her* normal. For now. In light of those two things it was a rather sleepless night for me but I was happy to listen to her breathe and snuggle her and see her sleep mostly peacefully between Robert and I. It's a relief to be all together, let me tell you.

I knew to expect some steps backward in the morning upon waking up. Hours of education about bonding and attaching taught us that especially after waking it might take a moment for her to remember where she is and that she is safe and we are safe. She woke up, sat up, looked at us four, and promptly bawled her eyes out for about 60 seconds. Then we got the banana puffs. She are them quickly from our hand, made no eye contact whatsoever and after a few minutes warmed up to us all over again. Precious little peep...she has been through so much. Her strength amazes me, truly. She is really doing so well. The oxygen saturation danger really is a game changer in parenting. We have to be so quick to distract her with whatever works to calm her and keep her in a safe range. She happily took all three nebulizer treatments, and her two other medicines (2 and three times daily) very very well today.

We all went to breakfast and she tried some things. It's easy to tell what she likes and what she does not like. What she does not like is immediately ejected from her mouth. What she likes is gobbled up " and pointed at. She does not like "congee" which is a Chinese porridge that most babies like. I tried it. I can see why she doesn't like it. She likes yogurt, scrambled eggs, fried rice, and noodles. It seems to be her signature move to put her mouth in the bowl if she wants something faster than the spoon can deliver. It is SO fun to discover things about her and see her personality on display. She is every bit the spunky, clever, silly, demanding, sweet, precious girl we thought she was and then some.

Occasionally she will use the sign for "more". We have been trying simple signs with her since our first moments together and "more" is catching on. Mostly she says "ma" or "mama" when she wants anything.

Our only adventure today was going to her "finding spot". This is the place where her birth mother (or father or someone) chose to place her when they decided they couldn't or wouldn't keep her. I could go into the reasons why this might have been but here's my gut feeling...The policy is sill one child in China. Even though girls are being more accepted as that one child, boys are preferred. A healthy child is really really preferred. Grace was born with an obvious GI defect in her esophagus called esophageal atresia/fistula. It didn't take long for her to be very very sick. It he report we received said she was very sick when she was found by a "passerby".

All along I had hoped we could see this place. I had hoped that it would be a busy highly traveled place because that would help me to assure Grace that her birth parents wanted her to have a chance. Maybe they were very young. Maybe they were scared to death at how sick she was and so poor they knew they couldn't afford to fix her. Maybe they hoped that positioning her in a public place (and risking their freedom by doing so) would give her a chance to find an American family who would come for her. This place could not be more highly traveled. There are people and traffic everywhere. I have no doubt her birth parents wanted to give her a chance which means they must have loved her on some level. That is what I will tell her one day. Her first parents gave her a chance. Many children in China are killed before birth or shortly after if they are not able to be kept for some reason. Her first parents, her birth parents, gave her a chance. I'm grateful that they did because now she is ours. Forever and for always.

After the finding spot out guide took us to a traditional Chinese noodle restaurant for lunch. We watched them make the noodles and then we are them. We ate a lot of them. So very yummy. Then we played a little ping long as a family and Grace scooted around on the table holding a paddle.

Tomorrow morning, we just learned, we will need to take Grace to a local hospital to be assessed in order for us to travel with the oxygen machine in cabin. Say it with me: God is not surprised by this. The oxygen drama continues. It actually amuses me now and we are rolling with it. It will be good to be the ones taking her to the doctor for a chance and our guide will go with us to translate. Please pray that this goes well and that we are able to travel with the machine. We haven't needed to use it yet but we will want it for the long return trip for sure. This should be the last flight that will cause a huge kerfuffle.

Click click click...there's no place like home. We are really beginning to miss home and our family and friends. Having no wifi doesn't help. Roberts phone is the only connection to the outside world because we may as well be on another planet here in Urumqi. We are having really sweet moments as we learn to do life as a family of 5. Thanks for encouraging and praying us home!